I don't own the characters! Only the story :)

Well, it's late I know, and I hate uploading stories this late at night, sorry about that, and the small delay, but if you have kids, you know, life can be unpredictable. I have reviewed this story, I have tried to catch any errors, but I am only human and since I wrote this chapter, Im not going to catch all the mistakes, that's just the way it usually works. I hope everything is at least coherent! A big thanks to all of my fans who have been reviewing, I love reading every single one. And thank you thank you thank you to all of you who I have been messaging with for helping me along. I really hope you all like this chapter. But if you don't please let me know (let me know if you like it to, of course!)

Let's me see who is reading this, I wrote an outline for this story, but there are two ways this story could go, and I am debating which is the correct direction to take it in. I want to here from YOU! So, send me a review, and if you don't want to, send me a message, tell me what you would like to see. Those of you who have given me your opinions have been spot on with what I am thinking. I am hoping your voice can help me decide which path to take the story. Hope you all enjoy this chapter! OH and since I still havent found a beta that I like, if any of you would be interested in at least prereading a chapter for me to give me your opinion, I would be more than willing to do that, so send me a message and let me know!

Charlie Swan walked into his daughter's bedroom and started to pace, staring at the floor, one hand in his pocket while the other cupped his mouth, trying to form a decent sentence. His thoughts were as jumbled as a Rubik cube. Every few seconds he would pause, look at his daughter, open his mouth, just to close it again and start the pacing all over.

Bella was sitting on her bed, mortification written all over her face, as she watched her father pace. She didn't have to read minds to know all the worst cased thoughts flowing through Charlie's head right now. While Edward and Bella had kissed before and even gone as far as copping a feel every now and then, they had never gone farther than that. Their nightly meetings were an escape from the world, for both of them. Edward had a chance to relax, in someone's company, without the others thoughts invading his mind. Bella, was able to have interaction with someone outside of her family, something she had never really realized as so very important until she had met the Cullen's.

"Dad, I'm…" Bella halted her plea when her father glared at her with hurt eyes and held his hand up.

He look at Bella for a moment longer, his eyes softening a bit, before shaking his head, letting out a huge sigh and plopping down onto the window seat.

"Just, be honest about one thing. Please." He beseeched. Bella swallowed and nodded her head. "What were you and," Charlie screwed up his face, "that boy, doing out there?"

"Just talking daddy I swear." Bella quickly replied before taking a deep breath and continued, trying to get out as much information as possible, trying to get her father to understand. "You know how Edward can read minds? Well he can't read mine. Which means that I'm the only person he can be around and have some peace and quiet. He likes getting away at night when everyone in that house is in their rooms but not really sleeping." Bella hurried, blushing as she explained this to her father, who looked just as embarrassed, " I've gone with him down to the lake cause, well, cause it's nice having someone to talk to, Dad! I like having friends. I hate that I've been hiding it and sneaking out but Dad, please don't make me stop seeing them, please."

Charlie blew out his breath and eyed his daughter, "Do you..ah…like Edward?" He asked hesitantly.

"Of course I like him! Why would I sneak out with someone I don't like?" Bella answered, not understanding exactly what Charlie was asking until she had replied.

"No, Bell, honey, Do you like him?" Charlie said, turning a bit red.

Bella flopped back on her bed. "Dad, do we really have to have this conversation?" she groaned.

"It's a legitimate question Bell, I find you walking, hand in hand with this boy, at five in the morning, you both looked like the cat that ate the canary, and well, you're at the age where, its understandable if you have those…um…feelings. I know your mom and I never have really at to talk to you about it and well…." Charlie trailed off feeling extremely awkward having this conversation. The only good thing, in Charlie's mind, about how the Swan's lived their life was thinking he would never have to worry about this conversation.

"GAH! Dad, just stop! Please!" Bella begged, "Before you start talking about urges and stuff, I'm almost sixteen years old, mom and I have talked a little bit about this subject, I know what kind of books Mom reads, we really, really don't need to have this discussion!"

Charlie nodded his head, "Alright then….so that means you and Edward…."

"Are just friends Dad." Bella insisted. " Am I really not allowed to see him anymore?" She asked, giving her dad the puppy dog look she had seen Alice perform for her parents before.

Charlie sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "No, but we are telling your mother about the Cullen's."

Bella opened her mouth to protest, if Renee knew about her sneaking out, there would be no way for her to still see them. Her mother would be convinced they were a bad influence on Bella. Hardly a positive picture to paint of the Cullen family.

"Charlie held up his hand, "We won't mention this incident, and I frankly don't want to here about any other times, I'm just going to pretend you're my little girl, and like most normal girls, you think boys are icky. You will not sneak out of the house again, I will be checking on you regularly, you can be damn sure of that. This is your one and only warning. I don't care how much I like that family, if I catch that boy in any inappropriate way, even if I think he is looking at you the wrong way, I will pull the plug on this whole thing. Do I make myself clear young lady?"

Bella couldn't help the grin that spread across her face and she nodded her head vigorously and jumped up to hug her father. "Thank you daddy!" She said, giving him a kiss on the cheek. "But, if you aren't going to tell mom about this, what are you going to tell her? Does this mean you aren't going to call Edward's parents either?"

"I think I'll see if the Cullen's are free today. If they are, then I believe it's time for one of our family days by the lake. We'll just happen to run into the Cullen's…maybe Jasper can do that thing he does and calm your mother down a bit when we break the news." Charlie said with a smirk. " And no, I wont tell Carlisle and Esme what their son was up to. But, hopefully, me calling will make that boy sweat a little." He finished chuckling slightly as he walked over to the door.

"Oh, and Bell?" Charlie said, turning and facing Bella, with sad eyes. "I love you honey, but you just got your first couple of friends. Most dad's get several years before their little girl goes off and has their first boyfriend. You think you could a least give me a few months before you decide to put me through that hell?"

Bella giggled and nodded her head. "Sure dad."

"Good, now, come on down stairs, I'm sure your mother is wondering what we are doing up here for so long."

Edward climbed through the office window, closing it shut, quietly behind him. He listened carefully to everyone's thoughts, noting that all but his father were still asleep. He crept slowly into the living room, paying extra attention to the thoughts of his family members. He thought about going back to his room and trying to get an hour or two of sleep, but decided it would be worse to be woken up to his mother yelling at him, than just staying up and dealing with his consequences with no shut eye.

Entering the kitchen, Edward found the pot of coffee had already finished brewing, the timer, no doubt being set for when his father normally woke up. He made himself a cup before refilling the filter and brewing a new batch so there would be plenty more coffee later Edward, was sure he was going to need it.

As he sat at the breakfast bar, his mind traveled back to earlier this morning, he couldn't believe he had been so stupid, sure, they had dosed off together before, but never fallen into such a deep sleep where they stayed out all night. For some reason, it bothered him that he couldn't wake Bella, he had tried everything from calling her name, shaking her, he even kissed her, but she wouldn't even stir. What was even more odd was, there were a few moments where he had been pretty sure he was hearing her thoughts, it sounded like her voice but the thoughts were jumbled, hard to hear like when there is static on a radio. As soon as she woke, the voice was gone leaving Edward to wonder if he had ever really heard anything to begin with. He tried to chalk her deep slumber up to a lack of sleep, Bella did have bags under her eyes and had been looking quite tired yesterday when the family had gotten together. He wondered what was keeping her from getting sleep, the whole reason they had agreed to only meet on the weekends was to prevent that .

Edward heard his father come down the stairs and his back stiffed as he read Carlisle's mind for any signs of anger. Surprisingly, Carlisle was not in an unhappy mood and had yet to have receive the call the chief had promised. Edward mustered a tight smile as he turned to face his father.

"Well, good morning." Carlisle said, shocked to see his son out of bed before eleven.

"Morning." Edward said roughly, as he took a sip of his too hot coffee.

Carlisle looked around before studying his son, "Is there a reason why you are up with the birds?"

Edward glanced at his father, debating how to respond, "I…uh…couldn't sleep?" he responded, though it came out more like a question, causing Carlisle to frown.

"Is everything…" Carlisle was cut off by his cell phone ringing. He looked at the phone in his hand and his frown grew. "Just a moment son. Charlie? Is everything okay?"

Carlisle's eyebrow rose at the same time Edward choked and sputtered out his mouthful of hot Joe.

Edward couldn't believe what his mind was hearing. Carlisle was picturing the family down by the lake, with the Swans, including Renee. Edward groaned and rubbed his face.

Edward knew this would be the final nail in the coffin, not only would Renee find out about the deceiving they had all done, but she would officially meet Edward, and then want to kill him along with the Chief and most likely his own parents too. To top it off, his siblings would be there to witness it all.

"I don't think Esme has any plans for today, but even if she does, I'm sure she will change them quickly, we have all been waiting for this moment." Carlisle said quickly. "Noon? Sure, sounds good to me, I'll see you at the usual place." He said before telling Charlie he would see him soon and ending the call.

"Huh." Carlisle said, still looking at his phone in confusion.

"What is it?" Edward asked, even though he had already heard his fathers thoughts.

"Charlie wants to tell Renee today, thinks it will be best if we all meet down by the lake and then tell her. Though, I can't imagine why now, yesterday he seemed pretty set on waiting until after Bella's birthday next week.

Edward said nothing, looking away from his father and shrugging his shoulders. "So we're going down there at noon?" Edward asked, standing up and walking over to the sink to rinse his mug. "I guess, I'll go take a shower then."

Carlisle nodded his head and smirked. "Alright. And Edward?" Carlisle said, getting his son to turn and face him. "Next time you sneak out of the house, you might want to change your clothes first, it's kind of obvious when you're still wearing your clothes from yesterday. Oh and there is a couple leaves stuck to your back." Carlisle thought while laughing as realization struck Edward. No, no thoughts about being out with Bella, yet, but his father definitely knew he had been out of the house. Edward turned red and nodded his head briefly before reaching behind his back and brushing off the stray leaves while walking out of the room.

Renee was quite surprised when Charlie suggested taking advantage of the rare, nice, warm September day and go to the lake. Once Bella chimed in about wanting to paint with her mom, Renee was sold on the idea. A couple of hours after breakfast was said and done, and the dishes were washed, a picnic basket was made, to which Bella had snuck several extra sandwiches while Renee gather her painting supplies, the family was making their walk down to the lake.

The carefree attitude Renee was sporting was short lived however, as they approached the edge of the property line. Her smile and laughter died out, the Cullen family were already down by the lake, the boys swinging from a rope, falling into the lake, the girls laughing at their brothers antics while Carlisle and Esme laid out a blanket.

Always quick to jump to conclusions, Renee spun to face Charlie, one hand on her hip.

"You set me up!" she hissed. " I can not believe you would do this! Here I thought we would be enjoying a nice quiet family day, and all of it was a…a….a bamboozle!"

Bella bit her lip to keep from laughing, Charlie struggled to keep a straight face as he tried to calm his wife down.

"Now listen Renee, we've done things your way, they worked for a while, but Bella wants friends, and these are wonderful people, so you can either stop acting like your shit don't stink and come join us, give them a chance and stop living in your past, or you can sleep on the couch, cause my back's had it!"

Renee's eyes widen and her jaw dropped, "I…what…uh…ooo…" she started, but was finding it hard to come up with a good response. Edward could hear Renee's angry thoughts and nudged Jasper, who started to send calming waves their way.

"Mom, please, their really nice, I think you and Esme would get along great together, if you just give them a chance."

Renee looked at Bella, all the pieces of the puzzle coming together. "You took her to see them!" She said eying her husband. "After I told you I didn't want her around them, you've been sending me off every weekend just so you two can meet them!"

"Renee, you can be upset all you want with me, later, right now we are going to walk over to the Cullen's and have a nice sit down." Charlie said before walking towards Carlisle, who was now standing with an arm placed on Esme's shoulder as the watched the family coming out of the woods.

"Come on Mom, please just meet with them, get to know them…" Bella pleaded as she held onto her mother's arm. "For me."

Renee sighed and shook her head muttering about how they were all going to end up dead as she walked towards the other parents, plastering a fake, very forced smile onto her face.

"Hello Renee, I'm Esme, I'm so happy we could meet again, under better circumstances." Esme said holding out her hand. "I've been just dieing to get to know another mother around here!"

Renee just continued to smile and nodded her head unknowingly letting Jasper's empathic abilities work their magic, as she lightly shook Esme's hand. Carlisle stepped up and offered his hand, "It's a pleasure to see you again, Renee." he said.

Renee smiled politely and shook his hand, "Hello."

There was an awkward pause of silence before Esme spoke up, introducing her children, who waved as she pointed each on out. Renee was polite and waved to each one as the looked up when their name was called.

"Bell, why don't you go hang out with the girls, let us parents have some time to chat." Charlie said before placing a hand over Renee's shoulder, leading her towards the picnic blanket.

"I see you brought a canvas, Renee, you know I enjoy a bit of painting as well," Bella heard Esme say, trying to engage her mother in conversation as Bella walked towards Alice and Rosalie.

"Bella!" Alice said gleefully as Bella approached. "We were just talking about you and Edward!"

"Yeah, heard through the all seeing grape vine over hear you've joined the getting caught club. Bravo!" Rosalie said.

Bella stared at the two girls who were grinning madly as she plopped down on Alice's other side. Over the last few weeks, Bella and Rose had come to an understanding, they didn't really have anything in common, Rose, enjoyed anything that had to do with cars, boys, and shopping and anything that didn't involve bugs, while Bella preferred the great outdoors, quality time with people and reading. But, the pair had come to a silent agreement, to get along for the sake of their friends, Neither would ever admit it, but both thought the other's power's were pretty cool.

"Did Edward tell you?"

"Oh no, but I had a vision of…." Alice's voice trailed off as her eyes glazed over. In the distances, Edward, who was laughing at a joke Emmett had cracked and swinging from the rope, about to jump in froze, a look of horror on his face.

The four parents sat and chatted for a few minutes before Renee decided to address the elephant in the room.

"Listen, I don't have any issue with talented people. Please understand that, but where my husband is so quick to accept you are who you say you are, I'm just not sure I'm comfortable with that."

Esme nodded her head, "I can understand completely"

"Can you? I grew up calling one of those, vial, disgusting excuse for a human being my uncle! He was my mothers best friend, and he turned on her! Can you really comprehend how I feel about my daughter associating with someone who has a power?"

Esme's eyes softened with pity, clearly Renee's past was traumatized by her mother's death, that much was evident by the hurt and emotions spoken with every word.

"Yes I can imagine, and I can fully understand, my parents disappeared by the Volturi hand, my sister was lured away by the Volturi, I have been on the run and protected my children from them countless times! We aren't out to get you. Our family, they are just like yours. We only want safety, and peace, we don't want to have to look over our shoulder any more than you do. Now I understand the amount of us that are left free, are few and far between, it seems like everyone now a days is some how tied to the Volturi. I have theories about that, but in any case, my family, we are not like that. You can get to know us, and make that decision for yourself, or you can keep acting like an afraid little teenager. Personally, I would really enjoy having another mother that lived so close to us to talk to."

Renee sat there with a shocked expression on her face. She knew well enough to know she had just been pushed off her high horse, her stubborn side refused to admit it though, so instead, she offered her own version of an olive branch.

"I guess…I guess it would be nice to have someone to talk to." Renee spoke bashfully as she looked down at the blanket.

Esme just smiled brightly, "Good, now, why don't you tell me about your paintings, Bella has said, you are quite the artist." She said, earning a smile from Renee, who, though still cautious, started talking about her favorite things to capture.

"Alice?" Bella asked concerned, placing a hand on her friend's shoulder.

Rose didn't look up from her spot in her, reading the latest fashion magazine, "She's just having another vision, she'll come to in about a second."

When Alice started to blink again she turned her head quickly and quirked an eyebrow, looking at Bella with an interesting gaze. Edward, who had landed in the lake with a painful splash was heading towards the girls quickly. Jasper, who had sensed an over powering surge of concern followed closely behind as Emmett continued standing in the lake, full of confusion.

"Is there something you were planning on telling us Bella?" Alice asked slowly.

"I…uh… well, I was going to talk to Edward this morning, but we got a little distracted." Bella said nervously, playing with the hem of her shirt. "I'm sure it isn't a big deal, but, something just feels funny."

"What feels funny?" Edward asked, grabbing a towel, wrapping it around his wet shorts before sitting next to Bella, disregarding Charlie's thoughts to move away from his daughter.

"Um, I uh, I had a strange dream…Actually, I've been having strange dreams, the same dream almost every night. But last night, or this morning, whichever it was, was the farthest the dream has progressed. It's nothing really. My mom always says, dreams are your subconscious' way of telling you something. But I just can't figure out what this one means." Bella said, now feeling ridiculous for even wanting to bring it up, surely they would all think she is crazy for getting so worked up over a silly dream.

The four Cullen's looked at each other with a nervous gaze, no one saying anything. Emmett had started walking out of the lake as Rose turned back to Bella, her precious magazine now forgotten.

"Dreams aren't always like that Bella, if your instincts tell you something is wrong, you need to listen. What was your dream about exactly?" Rose asked concerned.

Bella took a deep breath and started to explain the history of her dreams, by the time Emmett had walked up to join the others, she was getting to the part where the woman met her for the first time. No one interrupted, everyone stared with wide eyes, not moving a muscle. Edward's hands stared to clench the grass, his fingers digging into the earth. A vain in Emmett's forehead started to pulse as he too clenched and unclenched his hands into fists before speaking through gritted teeth.

"What did she look like?" He asked, interrupting Bella before she could finish the story. As soon as Bella described her, about Esme's height with her same warm eyes and olive complexion with shorter, darker, curly hair, Emmett took off running, letting out a loud scream before everyone heard a very large crash.

The parents all looked over to the group of teens, concern written clearly on their face. Simultaneously they stood and walked quickly over to the kids.

"Someone want to tell me what's going on?" Carlisle asked.

The kids looked to each other, no one knowing quite what to say, Bella was extremely confused, not understand the conclusion everyone else had come to.

"I…I was just telling them about the strange dreams I've been having." Bella tried to explain, not looking at the grown ups but at her friends, with worry. Esme gasped, and a hand flew to her mouth as her head turned in the direction of where they had heard the noise. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset him." Bella said looking quite upset.

Shakily, Esme crouched down, bringing her hand to Bella's shoulder, "Honey, what sort of strange dreams are you having?" she asked urgently.

Bella started shaking with fear at everyone's reaction, Charlie looked between all the sad eyes of the Cullen's and the worry written on his daughters face, the confusion and fear clear on his wife's face too.

As Bella launched into telling the story again, this time finishing without interuption. Edward got up and started pacing, pulling at his strands of hair, stopping every few seconds and blowing out a breath before resuming his walking, back and forth as he listen again. Esme had tears in her eyes as she gripped Carlisle's hand. Charlie, placing his arm around Renee's shoulder as she too, realized from the story and the Cullen's reaction's how wrong she had been dismissing her daughters dreams.

"Edward, Jasper, please go try to find your brother." Carlisle said, when Bella had finished. "Charlie, Renee, would you mind coming back to our house, I have a phone call I need to make, and I think we need to talk."

Renee didn't fight the idea of going someplace foreign, she weakly nodded her head, too worried to protest, as they all started to quickly, silently pack everything up and make the hike back to the Cullen house. Charlie didn't have any threatening thoughts as Edward reached over and grabbed Bella's hand to help her stand up, nor did he think anything negative as the boy continued to hold his daughter's hand. They all started walking towards the house, Edward kissed her cheek briefly and muttering a quick "see you soon" before taking off towards Emmett's rapid, spitfire thoughts.

Once everyone was situated in the Cullen living room, all looking at Esme expectantly, she launched into the story of Endora, her sister, and Demetri, the dream singer. When Endora was younger, she met Demetri at a local coffee shop. They had become quite good friends, Demetri had never revealed, until much later, he was a gifted person, Instead, he would enter her dreams at night, trying to convince her, through her sleep, that they were in love. Dora, as Esme called her, was very hesitant about any sort of romantic relationship at first. While her power wasn't really prominent, and she could probably have gone the rest of her life without using it. She loved being able to mess with people's minds, often, Esme and Dora would convince Uncle Eleazar that school was canceled due to snow, when there wouldn't be a flake on the ground! Of course, they never got away with those pranks for long. Dora was always very concerned about how people looked at her and worried that if she revealed to Demetri her power, he would shun her for it, or worse, try to manipulate her, a warning she had heard several times from her parents and uncle. But night after night as Demetri appeared in her mind her resolve would start to waver, until finally she told him she loved him, and she made the life changing choice to show him her talent. Dora took him to an open football field, told him to close his eyes and when he opened them, she had filled the stadium with cheering fans. She had him close his eyes again and then, there was giant dinosaur in the middle of the field. Later that night, he got her into bed with him. That was the night Emmett was conceived, shortly after that Dora began pulling away from Esme, who had been her best friend. She started arguments all the time with their Uncle, and would often run off in the middle of the night, leaving for days at a time. Eleazar was distraught and felt this all had to do with Demetri, he had never had a pleasant feeling about him and had tried to warn his charge Demetri had a similar gift of manipulation, every time Dora would brush her guardian's words off. You see, Eleazar had a knack for detected gifts, often he could read what someones talent was, though he couldn't always exactly pinpoint it. Esme tried to assure him that it was just a phase, Endora was just rebelling as young teens often do. Then one day, Esme received a phone call from Eleazar that Endora had run away to the Volturi with Demetri, she had left a note and packed everything leaving only the note and her old diary. Esme explained that is how she knew the majority of the story, how horrible she felt, disregarding her Uncle's fears, how for many years she held herself responsible for not looking out for her sister. Esme, who by now had taken a seat next to Renee, continued on with the story explaining that two years later, there was young little Emmett on her doorstep, note in hand from her sister, but Dora was no where to be seen. Esme had hoped that meant she had gotten away from the Volturi, was on the run and didn't want that life for her child. Obviously that wasn't the case.

After a long silent moment, Renee dried her eyes, "But, Bella just said she has seen this person in her dreams since she was little. How would he know of her? She never left the house until a few weeks ago?"

Charlie places his hand on his wife's shaking knee.

"I suspect, they have been watching you, Renee…" Esme said quietly.

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